The National Party should oppose the privatisation of the Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporatisation if it would “”cause harsh economic and social trauma to the Cooma community”, according to the party’s candidate for Eden-Monaro, Tom Barry.
Mr Barry was speaking at the opening of his campaign office in Queanbeyan yesterday.
The joint Liberal and National Party Fightback program says on p273: “”The following organisations have been targeted for sale in our first year. the operations of the Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation.”
Fightback says many of the 600 Commonwealth trading organisations “”could and should be owned by their employees and private-sector interests”.
Mr Barry said in a statement, “”The National Party has an obligation to rural and provincial Australia.”
He believed in privatisation but not applied without regard to consequences on a small country community. If the SMEC were to be sold to staff it must be on a basis that it could survive and prosper.
“”A staff sale must not become a convenient means of the Government of the day washing its hands of its responsibility to the community,” he said.
Fightback, however, does not mention “”harsh economic and social trauma to workers in the community”. It says total privatisation sales will net $13.1 billion and sets out four methods of sale: float, employee buy-out, trade sale and private placement. It then says, “”Each enterprise will require separate treatment depending on the situation in the industry at the time and the prevailing condition of national equity markets.”